Regulation that protects [competition] is good. Not necessarily. There's no point in using regulation to preserve competition between buggy whip manufacturers.

Regulation that protects [competition] is good. Not necessarily. There's no point in using regulation to preserve competition between buggy whip manufacturers. Creative destruction puts an end to many industries. And in some cases, its death throes can easily look like a market failure rather than market success. In the end, who decides if it's a buggy whip industry? And who decides if a corporation is an oligopoly? Remember, it's likely that in any mature, regulated industry, the regulators are probably industry insiders themselves (see "Regulatory Capture", https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Regulatory_capture https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Regulatory_ca... ).